Champions of Serenity :Gathering the Circle

Chapter 26

Tris sat by Babbit and helped him learn the simple fingering of a popular jig. She had let him use her lute as he didn’t have one of his own. She nodded and smiled when the boy learned the fingering and then added his clear, young voice to hers in harmony. Several of the camp’s children gathered around to watch and listen to the lesson Tris was giving Babbit in awe.

Jonas sat in his customary spot by the fire and watched. He still didn’t know what to make of the strange girl who had joined their caravan almost a week ago. She had spent the first two days in near exhaustion as she saved the lives of his people who had contracted a magical illness. She knew what they were, but didn’t ever talk about it. Then, two nights ago, she had stood shoulder to shoulder with the able men to kill a patrol of Greshinea’s men who were intent on destroying the caravan.

He also didn’t understand why she didn’t act on the obvious attraction she had for his brother. Most women tried to gain Meckin’s favor and she had it but seemed to disdain it. Around her neck she wore a carved medallion that Meckin had given her of a wolf’s head. She had even composed a song just for his brother. But still, there was a distance between them that made the Vasirem Ocean appear but a trickle of a creek.

Behind him, a wagon door slammed shut. Jonas watched his brother watching Tris. When the lesson was over, Tris handed the lute to Babbit to keep so he could practice. She then gathered her things together and buckled her sword around her waist. She didn’t see Jonas or Meckin as she slung her cloak over her shoulders and looked off into the forest. Jonas stayed near but didn’t interfere as his brother strode over to Tris.

Meckin grabbed Tris by the arm and pulled her out of earshot of the rest of the camp. Tris felt her hackles rise from the stink of anger on his body. What right did he have to be angry with her? She had saved his people from a magical illness and then protected them from the patrols sent by Greshinea to decimate a demoralized caravan.

“What do you think you are doing, Tris?”

“What are you talking about, Meckin?”

Both hissed angrily at each other and then glared. “Who are you, Tris? You come into this camp, charm my uncharmable brother, save the lives of our people, fight in defense of this camp, encourage my nephew in his music, yet you take nothing from anyone, even thanks. And now you are just going to leave without a word to anyone? Do you think you can toy with people in such a manner?”

Tris fought the anger building inside of her. The calm part of her that she came to know as Debra, let Tris see the worry and fear on Meckin’s part. She knew him, but he didn’t know her. He was just trying to understand.

“Who am I? I am Trisinda Jaqukwen, Meckin Topsawer. I am a bard and a healer. I fight when I have to and run when I can. I don’t accept what I can’t carry on my back. Words of praise for what comes naturally to me are unpleasant to me. And I am a free woman to come and go as I please.” Tris started, trying to not be too angry with the Wer.

“It’s more than that, Tris. You avoid people when most others would seek them. I know you were wounded in that fight two days ago with His men, but yesterday, you weren’t even sore. You won’t eat what I hunt and offer you. You take long walks late at night during the worst possible times and then act as if nothing is wrong. I would follow you to the ends of the earth if you asked it of me and I don’t know why when I wouldn’t even do that for my own brother. Tris, help me understand.”

“Meckin…”

“Don’t lie to me, Tris. I can smell when someone lies. I’ve been honest with you. What you know about me and my people would be a death sentence if anyone else knew. Why won’t you trust me?”

“I trust you more than I trust any other person I know, Meckin, outside of my heart sisters. But there are things that I can’t tell anyone, even them. I don’t eat meat, Meckin, it makes me sick. I’m not rejecting you; I’m trying to spare you.”

“Don’t spare me, Tris. I’m a big boy and can handle whatever it is you are hiding.” He stared into her eyes and his pleading turned into more anger and he tried to steel his heart against her. “If you leave now, Tris, with this between us, don’t bother coming back. I won’t be available.” Meckin snarled at her, then pushed away and stormed into the forest. In a few minutes, she heard the howl of a wolf as he hunted to ease the pain of his heart.

Tris turned and found Jonas watching her. There was no judgment on his face or in his eyes, he was simply there.

“I have to leave, Jonas.” Tris started, looking into the forest again and then back to him. “I didn’t want this; I didn’t want to hurt him.”

“He’s a big boy, Tris, he can handle pain.” He started to say something else and then shook his head. “I have too much respect for you to stand in your way, but I think it’s a mistake you leaving like this. He deserves more than to be abandoned.”

“Abandoned? Is that what you think I’m doing, Jonas? Running away from something unpleasant?” Tris gave a harsh, self-mocking laugh. “You have it all wrong, Jonas, all wrong. I want what he has to offer. I would give just about anything to be able to be part of this family. To feel the companionship of people I can trust with my life and to know they trusted me equally so. Gods above and below, Jonas, that is my dream.”

“Then why won’t you accept it, Tris? It’s offered to you.” Jonas opened his arms, gesturing her welcome to anything in the camp. His voice echoed the anguish in Meckin’s.

“I have my reasons, Jonas.” Tris said sadly, reaching out to touch his hand. She dropped her hand when Jonas pulled back from her, the pain and confusion plain on his face. “I promise you, Jonas, if I survive this quest I am on, I will come back and give you my reasons. But I have a feeling that you will know long before I can tell you why it is better that I just leave now and not prolong the pain of parting. I will come back and you can look me in the eye and either curse me or welcome me when that day arrives.”

Jonas turned his back on her, rejecting her promise. Picking up her staff, Tris took one last look at the caravan and started on her way through the forest. She still had to find and speak with the Dryads who lived in this forest and she could feel time was running out. She sent a prayer to whichever of the gods as would hear her to keep Meckin and his family safe from the terror that would shortly flood the world.

“He will follow her.” Shægnek said softly to herself as her child picked up his mantle within the prophecy. The others had forgotten that she did indeed have a child in the prophecy and she allowed them to, knowing it would help in the long run. “She could have trusted him with the truth though.” She thought sadly.

She took simple pride in how this caravan had survived when most of the others had perished. Reaching out with her special blessing, she eased the pain in Meckin’s heart, planting in its place the knowledge that one day and soon, he would be with Tris again and would know the truth. It wasn’t much, but it was more than the others seemed to be doing with their children.

“She’s gone.”

“Yes, Meckin, she’s gone.” Jonas handed his brother a full skin of deep red wine, knowing it would help dull the pain. He then took the brace of rabbits from his brother’s nerveless hands and gave them to Babbit to dress for dinner. “She said she would be back, she promised.”

“Things will be different then, Jonas, we both know that. We knew from the beginning she was touched by the gods. I was a fool to think the love of a mortal could ever compete with the compulsion of the gods. I just wonder which one has claimed her for their own purposes.” Meckin took a long swallow of the wine and handed it back to Jonas. He stared into the flames of the central fire pit of the caravan.

“When are you going to leave, Meckin?” Meckin startled and looked at his brother in surprise. “I know you too well. She’s in your blood and you will follow her. I’m just curious how much of a head start you were planning on giving her.”

“When are you planning on breaking camp?” Meckin asked, bending down and adding a handful of twigs to the flames. The camp’s children played around them and in one of the wagons an argument raged about whose turn it was to wash the bedding. Men were talking about the hunting in the forest and merits of one breed of horse versus another. Women were getting the evening meal ready, speaking of husbands, brothers, fathers, and sons.

“We’ll leave in the morning, before another patrol can find us. No one is sick any longer and we have enough supplies to make it to Jentro.”

“I will track her after I see you off in the morning then. With luck, I’ll meet up with you in Jentro, Tris in hand.” Meckin shared a smile with his brother but neither man was deceived. They wouldn’t be meeting in Jentro, not anytime soon. The roads that lay before them both were much longer and harder than any they had yet traversed.